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Thanks to Edgar Allan Poe, Honore de Balzac, Nathaniel Hawthorne and others, the half century from 1800-1849 is the cradle of all modern horror short stories. Andrew Barger, the editor of this book as well as "Edgar Allan Poe Annotated and Illustrated Entire Stories and Poems," read over 300 horror short stories to compile the 12 best.

At the back of the book he includes a list of all horror short stories he considered along with their dates of publication and author, when available. He even includes background for each of the stories, author photos and annotations for difficult terminology. A number of the stories were published in leading periodicals of the day such as Blackwood's and Atkinson's Casket. Read The Best Horror Short Stories 1800-1849 today!

Widely considered the greatest author of the Victorian era, Charles Dickens enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime, winning universal praise as a literary genius. Dickens' novels and beloved tales not only entertained the world, but helped to improve the lives of the lower classes and fight social injustices. For the first time in publishing history, this comprehensive eBook presents Dickens' complete works, with hundreds of illustrations and many rare texts.

This ebook contains Dickens' complete works in a new, easy-to-read and easy-to-navigate format. With this beautiful Collectible Edition, you can enjoy Dickens' enduring literary legacy again and again.

This collection features the following works:VOLUME 1 : ALL NOVELSA Tale of Two CitiesBarnaby RudgeBleak HouseDavid CopperfieldDombey and SonGreat ExpectationsHard TimesLittle DorritLife and Adventures of Martin ChuzzlewitLife and Adventures of Nicholas NicklebyThe Mystery of Edwin DroodThe Old Curiosity ShopOliver TwistOur Mutual FriendThe Pickwick Papers

The story of 'A Tale of Two Cities' is set in the late 18th Century in London and Paris, before and during the French Revolution. It was a time when injustice was met by a lust for vengeance, and rarely was a distinction made between the innocent and the guilty. It was published in weekly installments from April 1859 to November 1859 in Dickens's new literary periodical titled 'All the Year Round'. This novel is regarded as one of Dickens's most popular and most innovative works.

After eighteen years as a political prisoner in the Bastille the aging Dr Manette is finally released and reunited with his daughter in England. There, two very different men, Charles Darnay, an exiled French aristocrat, and Sydney Carton, a disreputable but brilliant English lawyer, become enmeshed through their love for Lucie Manette. From the tranquil lanes of London, they are all drawn against their will to the vengeful, bloodstained streets of Paris at the height of the Reign of Terror and soon fall under the lethal shadow of La Guillotine.

The book is perhaps best known for its opening lines, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times," and for Carton's last speech, in which he says of his replacing Darnay in a prison cell, "It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known."

We love ghost stories here at Wildside Press. If you've read the first 3 volumes in the Ghost Story MEGAPACKTM series, plus The Macabre MEGAPACKTM series, you’re pretty well caught up with the classic supernatural fiction we've been reading lately. Don't worry, though -- we'll keep digging for more classic horror tales!

Included in this volume are:

THE FOUR-FIFTEEN EXPRESS, by Amelia B. Edwards THREE SPANISH LADIES, by Walter E Marconette BRICKETT BOTTOM, by Amyas Northcote ACROSS THE GULF, by Henry S. Whitehead THE NIGHT CALL, by Henry van Dyke HIS UNQUIET GHOST, by Mary Noailles Murfree THE DREAM-GOWN OF THE JAPANESE AMBASSADOR, by Brander Matthews THE MAN IN THE MIRROR, by Lillian B. Hunt HIS DAY BACK, by Jack Brant MY OWN TRUE GHOST STORY, by Rudyard Kipling THE LONG CHAMBER, by Olivia Howard Dunbar THE PAST, by Ellen Glasgow MISS TEMPY'S WATCHERS, by Sarah Orne Jewett THE HAUNTED MAN AND THE GHOST'S BARGAIN, by Charles Dickens THE BULLY OF BROCAS COURT, by Arthur Conan Doyle THE SPIRAL STONE, by Arthur Willis Colton THE GHOST OF THE BLUE CHAMBER, by Jerome K. Jerome THE MINIATURE, by J. Y. Akerman TO LET, by B. M. Croker THE FOREIGNER, by Sarah Orne Jewett THE STONEGROUND GHOST TALES, by E. G. Swain THEY THAT MOURN, by Juliet Wilbor Tompkins GREEN BRANCHES, by Fiona Macleod THE WERE-WOLF, by H. B. Marryatt THE GHOST AT POINT OF ROCKS, by Frank H. Spearman

This carefully crafted ebook: “Great Expectations (Unabridged with the original illustrations by Charles Green)” is formatted for your eReader with a functional and detailed table of contents. Great Expectations is a bildungsroman, or a coming-of-age novel, and it is a classic work of Victorian literature. It depicts the growth and personal development of an orphan named Pip. The novel was first published in serial form in Dickens' weekly periodical All the Year Round, from 1 December 1860 to August 1861. Charles John Huffam Dickens (7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's most memorable fictional characters and is generally regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian period. During his life, his works enjoyed unprecedented fame, and by the twentieth century his literary genius was broadly acknowledged by critics and scholars. His novels and short stories continue to be widely popular.

A Tale of Two Cities differs essentially from all of Dickens' other novels in style and manner of treatment. Forster, in his 'Life of Dickens,' writes that "there is no instance in his novels excepting this, of a deliberate and planned departure from the method of treatment which had been pre-eminently the source of his popularity as a novelist." To rely less upon character than upon incident, and to resolve that his actors should be expressed by the story more than they should express themselves by dialogue, was for him a hazardous, and can hardly be called an entirely successful, experiment. With singular dramatic vivacity, much constructive art, and with descriptive passages of a high order everywhere, there was probably never a book by a great humorist, and an artist so prolific in conception, with so little humor and so few remarkable figures. Its merit lies elsewhere. The two cities are London and Paris. The time is just before and during the French Revolution. A peculiar chain of events knits and interweaves the lives of a "few simple, private people" with the outbreak of a terrible public event. Dr. Manette has been a prisoner in the Bastille for eighteen years, languishing there, as did so many others, on some vague unfounded charge. His release when the story opens, his restoration to his daughter Lucie, the trial and acquittal of one Charles Darnay, nephew of a French marquis, on a charge of treason, the marriage of Lucie Manette to Darnay,— these incidents form the introduction to the drama of blood which is to follow. Two friends of the Manette family complete the circle of important characters: Mr.

Written in the last decade of Dickens' life, 'Great Expectations' was praised widely and universally admired. It was his last great novel, and many critics believe it to be his finest. Readers and critics alike praised it for its masterful plot, which rises above the melodrama of some of his earlier works, and for its three-dimensional, psychologically realistic characters—characters much deeper and more interesting than the one-note caricatures of earlier novels.

It depicts the growth and personal development of an orphan named Pip. The novel was first published in serial form in Dickens's weekly periodical 'All the Year Round', from 1 December 1860 to August 1861. It is set among the marshes of Kent and in London in the early to mid-1800s. The Great Expectations contains some of Dickens most memorable scenes, including its opening, in a graveyard, when the young orphan Pip is accosted by the escaped convict, Abel Magwitch. It is full of extreme imagery, poverty, prison ships, barriers and chains, and fights to the death. Upon its release, Thomas Carlyle spoke of "All that Pip's nonsense". Later, George Bernard Shaw praised the novel as "All of one piece and consistently truthfull". Dickens felt Great Expectations was his best work, calling it "a very fine idea".

Throughout the narrative, typical Dickensian themes emerge: wealth and poverty, love and rejection, and the eventual triumph of good over evil. This book has become very popular and is now taught as a classic in many English classes. It has been translated into many languages and adapted many times in film and other media.

Oliver Twist, subtitled The Parish Boy's Progress, is the second novel by English author Charles Dickens, published by Richard Bentley in 1838. The story is about an orphan, Oliver Twist, who endures a miserable existence in a workhouse and then is placed with an undertaker. He escapes and travels to London where he meets the Artful Dodger, leader of a gang of juvenile pickpockets. Naïvely unaware of their unlawful activities, Oliver is led to the lair of their elderly criminal trainer Fagin.

David Copperfield is the common name of the eighth novel by Charles Dickens, first published as a novel in 1850. Its full title is The Personal History, Adventures, Experience and Observation of David Copperfield the Younger of Blunderstone Rookery (Which He Never Meant to Publish on Any Account). Like most of his works, it originally appeared in serial form during the two preceding years. Many elements of the novel follow events in Dickens' own life, and it is probably the most autobiographical of his novels. In the preface to the 1867 edition, Dickens wrote, "like many fond parents, I have in my heart of hearts a favourite child. And his name is David Copperfield."

This carefully crafted ebook: “A Tale of Two Cities + Great Expectations (2 Unabridged Classics)” is formatted for your eReader with a functional and detailed table of contents.A Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations are two much-loved novels by Charles Dickens. Tale of Two Cities is a novel set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. The main characters — Doctor Alexandre Manette, Charles Darnay, and Sydney Carton — are all recalled to life, or resurrected, in different ways as turmoil erupts.Great Expectations centers around a poor young man by the name of Pip, who is given the chance to make himself a gentleman by a mysterious benefactor. Great Expectations offers a fascinating view of the differences between classes during the Victorian era, as well as a great sense of comedy and pathos.

Charles John Huffam Dickens ( 1812 – 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's most memorable fictional characters and is generally regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian period. During his life, his works enjoyed unprecedented fame, and by the twentieth century his literary genius was broadly acknowledged by critics and scholars. His novels and short stories continue to be widely popular.

All Coterie Classics have been formatted for ereaders and devices and include a bonus link to the free audio book.

“Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts. I was better after I had cried, than before--more sorry, more aware of my own ingratitude, more gentle.” ― Charles Dickens, Great Expectations Great Expectations is the epic coming of age novel from Charles Dickens about a young boy who sets out to seek his way in the world and discovers great potential in himself.

Charles Dickens' "Oliver Twist" is considered one of his greatest books. It also can be difficult to understand--it is loaded with themes, imagery, and symbols. If you need a little help understanding it, let BookCaps help with this study guide. Along with chapter-by-chapter summaries and analysis, this book features the full text of Wilde's classic novel is also included. BookCap Study Guides are not meant to be purchased as alternatives to reading the book.

This carefully crafted ebook: “A Tale of Two Cities + Great Expectations (2 Unabridged Classics)” is formatted for your eReader with a functional and detailed table of contents. A Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations are two much-loved novels by Charles Dickens. Tale of Two Cities is is a novel set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. The main characters — Doctor Alexandre Manette, Charles Darnay, and Sydney Carton — are all recalled to life, or resurrected, in different ways as turmoil erupts. Great Expectations centers around a poor young man by the name of Pip, who is given the chance to make himself a gentleman by a mysterious benefactor. Great Expectations offers a fascinating view of the differences between classes during the Victorian era, as well as a great sense of comedy and pathos. Charles John Huffam Dickens ( 1812 – 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's most memorable fictional characters and is generally regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian period. During his life, his works enjoyed unprecedented fame, and by the twentieth century his literary genius was broadly acknowledged by critics and scholars. His novels and short stories continue to be widely popular.

Bring The Classics To Life. These novels have been adapted into 10 short chapters that will excite the reluctant reader as well as the enthusiastic one. Key words are defined and used in context. Multiple-choice questions require the student to recall specific details, sequence the events, draw inferences from story context, develop another name for the chapter, and choose the main idea. Let the Classics introduce Kipling, Stevenson, and H.G. Wells. Your students will embrace the notion of Crusoe's lonely reflections, the psychological reactions of a Civil War soldier at Chancellorsville, and the tragedy of the Jacobite Cause in 18th Century Scotland. In our society, knowledge of these Classics is a cultural necessity. Improves fluency, vocabulary and comprehension.

Little Dorrit was published 1856-57, when the author's popularity was at its height. The plot is a slight one on which to hang more than fifty characters. The author began with the intention of emphasizing the fact that individuals brought together by chance, if only for an instant, continue henceforth to influence and to act and react upon one another. But this original motive is soon altogether forgotten in the multiplication of characters and the relation of their fortunes. The central idea is to portray the experiences of the Dorrit family, immured for many years on account of debt in the old Marshalsea Prison, and then unexpectedly restored to wealth and freedom. Having been pitiable in poverty, they become arrogant and contemptible in affluence. Amy, "Little Dorrit," alone remains pure, lovable, and self-denying. In her, Dickens embodies the best human qualities in a most beautiful and persuasive form. She enlists the love of Arthur Clennam, who meantime has had his own trials. Returning from India, after long absence, he finds his mother a religious fanatic, domineered over by the hypocritical old Flintwinch, and both preyed upon by the Mephistophelian Blandois, perhaps the most dastardly villain in the whole Dickens gallery. The complications, however, end happily for Arthur and Amy. The main attack of the book is aimed against official "red tape" as exemplified in the Barnacle family and the "Circumlocution Office." ...

This is a classic from the pen of Charles Dickens. Oliver is a young boy who is trapped by people and events. Mr. Brownlow helps Oliver but he faces one problem after another. Sikes is after his blood. There are many dramatic events. Finally, Sikes meets his end. Due to the efforts of some noble persons, Oliver Twist gets all that he deserves. Dickens at his best in this novel!

The original flavour of these classics has been caref ully retained in these abridged versions.

This carefully crafted ebook: “The Adventures of Oliver Twist (Unabridged with the Original Illustrations by George Cruikshank)” is formatted for your eReader with a functional and detailed table of contents. The Adventures of Oliver Twist, first published in 1838, is a story written by Charles Dickens. Orphaned at birth, Oliver Twist grows up under the loveless, relentless watch of a workhouse. He runs away with hopes for a better life in London and finds himself taken under the wing of the Artful Dodger and caught up with a group of pickpockets, headed by Fagin. As he tries to free himself from their clutches he becomes immersed in the seedy underbelly of the Capital, amongst criminals, prostitutes and the homeless. He is rescued by Mr. Brownlow but the gang kidnap him back. But Oliver discovers the identity of his parents and the gang is exposed. Charles John Huffam Dickens ( 1812 – 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's most memorable fictional characters and is generally regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian period. During his life, his works enjoyed unprecedented fame, and by the twentieth century his literary genius was broadly acknowledged by critics and scholars. His novels and short stories continue to be widely popular.

This carefully crafted ebook: “Oliver Twist + The Old Curiosity Shop (2 Unabridged Classics, Illustrated)” is formatted for your eReader with a functional and detailed table of contents. Oliver Twist, subtitled The Parish Boy's Progress, is the second novel by Charles Dickens, published by in 1838. The story is about an orphan, Oliver Twist, who endures a miserable existence in a workhouse and then is placed with an undertaker. He escapes and travels to London where he meets the Artful Dodger, leader of a gang of juvenile pickpockets. Naïvely unaware of their unlawful activities, Oliver is led to the lair of their elderly criminal trainer Fagin. The Old Curiosity Shop is a novel by Charles Dickens, published in 1841. The plot follows the plight of a homeless thirteen year-old girl, Nell Trent, and her aged Grandfather, as they wander the countryside of England, keeping one step ahead of their horrible dwarf nemesis, Daniel Quilp. Charles John Huffam Dickens ( 1812 – 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's most memorable fictional characters and is generally regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian period. During his life, his works enjoyed unprecedented fame, and by the twentieth century his literary genius was broadly acknowledged by critics and scholars. His novels and short stories continue to be widely popular.

One night, the old money-lender Ebenezer Scrooge receives four visitors. The first is the ghost of his business partner, Jacob Marley, who warns Scrooge of the night ahead. The next three spirits show Scrooge what he once was, what he came to be, and what will become of him if he continues to be a miserly, selfish, cheerless person. Scrooge must regain his compassion and humanity to avoid the fate shown to him by the last spirit. First published in 1843, Charles Dickens' English novella is a classic Christmas story. This unabridged version of the text is taken from the 1847 edition, with original illustrations by John Leech.

Master Humphrey's Clock was a weekly periodical edited and written entirely by Charles Dickens and published from April 4, 1840 to December 4, 1841. It began with a frame story in which Master Humphrey tells about himself and his small circle of friends (which includes Mr. Pickwick), and their penchant for telling stories. Several short stories were included, followed by the novels The Old Curiosity Shop and Barnaby Rudge. It is generally thought that Dickens originally intended The Old Curiosity Shop as a short story like the others that had appeared in Master Humphrey's Clock, but after a few chapters decided to extend it into a novel. Master Humphrey appears as the first-person narrator in the first three chapters of The Old Curiosity Shop but then disappears, stating, "And now that I have carried this history so far in my own character and introduced these personages to the reader, I shall for the convenience of the narrative detach myself from its further course, and leave those who have prominent and necessary parts in it to speak and act for themselves."

Master Humphrey is a lonely man who lives in London. He keeps old manuscripts in an antique longcase clock by the chimney-corner. One day, he decides that he would start a little club, called Master Humphrey's Clock, where the members would read out their manuscripts to the others. The members include Master Humphrey; a deaf gentleman, Jack Redburn; retired merchant Owen Miles; and Mr. Pickwick from The Pickwick Papers. A mirror club in the kitchen, Mr. Weller's Watch, run by Mr. Weller, has members including Humphrey's maid, the barber and Sam Weller.

Master Humphrey's Clock appeared after The Old Curiosity Shop, to introduce Barnaby Rudge. After Barnaby Rudge, Master Humphrey is left by himself by the chimney corner in a train of thoughts. Here, the deaf gentleman continues the narration. Later, the deaf gentleman and his friends return to Humphrey's house to find him dead. Humphrey has left money for the barber and the maid (no doubt by traces of love that they would be married). Redburn and the deaf gentleman look after the house and the club closes for good.

In the portion of Master Humphrey's Clock which succeeds The Old Curiosity Shop, Master Humphrey reveals to his friends that he is in fact the character referred to as the 'single gentleman' in that story.

Raised in a workhouse for orphans, Oliver Twist never knew his mother, who died just after he was born, and he has no idea who his father could be. He escapes the workhouse and runs away to London, where he discovers the city's seedy underbelly that teems with pickpockets and beggars. While making friends and enemies in high and low places, Oliver tries to avoid a life of destitution and crime in the corrupt city. English author Charles Dickens' rags-to-riches story champions the poor and examines social morals. This is an unabridged version of the novel, first published in 1838.

Among other public buildings in a certain town which for many reasons it will be prudent to refrain from mentioning, and to which I will assign no fictitious name, it boasts of one which is common to most towns, great or small, to wit, a workhouse; and in this workhouse was born, on a day and date which I need not take upon myself to repeat, inasmuch as it can be of no possible consequence to the reader, in this stage of the business at all events, the item of mortality whose name is prefixed to the head of this chapter. For a long time after he was ushered into this world of sorrow and trouble, by the parish surgeon, it remained a matter of considerable doubt whether the child would survive to bear any name at all; in which case it is somewhat more than probable that these memoirs would never have appeared, or, if they had, being comprised within a couple of pages, that they would have possessed the inestimable merit of being the most concise and faithful specimen of biography extant in the literature of any age or country. Although I am not disposed to maintain that the being born in a workhouse is in itself the most fortunate and enviable circumstance that can possibly befal a human being, I do mean to say that in this particular instance it was the best thing for Oliver Twist that could by possibility have occurred. The fact is, that there was considerable difficulty in inducing Oliver to take upon himself the office of respiration,Ña troublesome practice, but one which custom has rendered necessary to our easy existence,Ñand for some time he lay gasping on a little flock mattress, rather unequally poised between this world and the next, the balance being decidedly in favour of the latter. Now, if during this brief period, Oliver had been surrounded by careful grandmothers, anxious aunts, experienced nurses, and doctors of profound wisdom, he would most inevitably and indubitably have been killed in no time. There being nobody by, however, but a pauper old woman, who was rendered rather misty by an unwonted allowance of beer, and a parish surgeon who did such matters by contract, Oliver and nature fought out the point between them. The result was, that, after a few struggles, Oliver breathed, sneezed, and proceeded to advertise to the inmates of the workhouse the fact of a new burden having been imposed upon the parish, by setting up as loud a cry as could reasonably have been expected from a male infant who had not been possessed of that very useful appendage, a voice, for a much longer space of time than three minutes and a quarter.

Barnaby Rudge, a historical novel, is set in London and deals with the anti-popery events of the 1780s. Wild scenes of massacre involving people from all levels of the society are depicted in Dickens's typically heart-rending manner. It is a story of discrimination and fanaticism.

David Copperfield (1850) by Charles Dickens (1812-1870) follows the story of a boy named David who's step-father mistreats him and he's sent to boarding school. The story continues to follow David to adulthood which was also was considered to be a more of an autobiographical account of the authors own life from childhood to adulthood. Mermaids Classics, an imprint of Mermaids Publishing brings the very best of old classic literature to a modern era of digital reading by producing high quality books in ebook format. All of the Mermaids Classics epublications are reproductions of classic antique books that were originally published in print format, mostly over a century ago and are now republished in digital format as ebooks. Begin to build your collection of digital books by looking for more literary gems from Mermaids Classics.

Oliver Twist is a story of a young orphan, Oliver, and his attempts to stay good in a depraved society. The book exposes the miseries of poverty and its degrading effects through society. Oliver embodies innocence and incorruptibility. He was born and raised in a workhouse, then forced to live with a group of petty criminals and finally was adopted by a generous old man to live with him happily. He faces many obstacles and lives through many horrors throughout the novel. The cruelty of institutions and bureaucracies towards the unfortunate is perhaps the pre-eminent theme of the book, and essentially what makes it a social novel. Like a true Dickensian narrative, the dichotomy between Good and Evil are very clearly marked out. The story with many twists and turns keeps the reader engaged and imparts hope that benevolence can overcome and depravity.

Great Expectations is set in early Victorian England, a time when great social changes were sweeping the nation. The Industrial Revolution of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries automatically led to divisions between the rich and poor. London’s population grew rapidly. More and more people moved from the country to the city in search of greater economic opportunity. With the combination of sewage, coal fires, and unwashed bodies, the odor of London was horrendous. Both the rich and the poor had to contend with the evil air around the city. Great Expectation is the story of Pip, an orphan boy adopted by a blacksmith's family. The narrator, Pip, recounts his life story from his childhood to how he matures and grows up to becoming a young man. Throughout this transformation, one thing remains unchanged. Pip falls in love with a wealthy but heartless girl named Estella. From that moment on, everything Pip does in his life is no longer for himself or anyone else but for Estella and only her. Pip even receives a fortune from a secret benefactor to pursue an education and he does this along with obtaining wealth, success and high social class in the hopes of becoming worthy in the eyes of his beloved Estella.

Oliver Twist, or The Parish Boy's Progress, is the second novel by Charles Dickens, and was first published as a serial 1837–9. The story is of the orphan Oliver Twist, who starts his life in a workhouse and is then apprenticed with an undertaker. He escapes from there and travels to London where he meets the Artful Dodger, a member of a gang of juvenile pickpockets, which is led by the elderly criminal Fagin.

Oliver Twist is notable for Dickens's unromantic portrayal of criminals and their sordid lives, as well as exposing the cruel treatment of the many orphans in London in the mid–nineteenth century. The alternate title, The Parish Boy's Progress, alludes to Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress, as well as the 18th-century caricature series by William Hogarth, A Rake's Progress and A Harlot's Progress.

An early example of the social novel, Dickens satirizes the hypocrisies of his time, including child labour, the recruitment of children as criminals, and the presence of street children. The novel may have been inspired by the story of Robert Blincoe, an orphan whose account of working as a child labourer in a cotton mill was widely read in the 1830s. It is likely that Dickens's own youthful experiences contributed as well.

Oliver Twist has been the subject of numerous adaptations, for various media, including a highly successful musical play, Oliver!, and the multiple Academy Award-winning 1968 motion picture.

A whole generation, on either side of the Atlantic, used to fall sobbing at the name of Little Nell, which will hardly bring tears to the eyes of any one now, though it is still apparent that the child was imagined with real feelings, and her sad little melodrama was staged with sympathetic skill. When all is said against the lapses of taste and truth, the notion of the young girl wandering up and down the country with her demented grandfather, and meeting good and evil fortune with the same devotion, till death overtakes her, is something that must always touch the heart. It is preposterously overdone, yes, and the author himself falls into pages of hysterical rhythm, which once moved people, when he ought to have been writing plain, straight prose; yet there is in all a sense of the divinity in common and humble lives, which is the most precious quality of literature, as it is almost the rarest, and it is this which moves and consoles. It is this quality in Dickens which Tolstoy prizes and accepts as proof of his great art, and which the true critic must always set above any effect of literary mastery. "The Old Curiosity Shop" makes strong appeal to a youthful imagination, and contains little that is beyond its scope. Dickens's sentiment, however it may distress the mature mind of our later day, is not unwholesome, and, at all events in this story, addresses itself naturally enough to feelings unsubdued by criticism. His quality of picturesqueness is here seen at its best, with little or nothing of that melodrama which makes the alloy of "Nicholas Nickleby" and "Oliver Twist" —to speak only of the early books.

"Sketches By Boz" is a collection of 56 sketches concerning London scenes and inhabitants. Most of the stories, that are divided into four sections, are portraits, but there are also some purely fictional ones.

This carefully crafted ebook: “5 Christmas Books (Unabridged and Fully Illustrated: A Christmas Carol; The Chimes; The Cricket on the Hearth; The Battle of Life; The Haunted Man)” is formatted for your eReader with a functional and detailed table of contents. A Christmas Carol The tale has been viewed by critics as an indictment of 19th-century industrial capitalism. It has been credited with restoring the holiday to one of merriment and festivity in Britain and America after a period of sobriety and sombreness. The Chimes The story of Trotty Veck, a poor ticket porter, whose outlook is changed from despair to hope by the spirits of the chimes on New Year's Eve. The Cricket on the Hearth Short tale written by Charles Dickens as a Christmas book for 1845 but published in 1846. The title creature is a sort of barometer of life at the home of John Peerybingle and his much younger wife Dot. When things go well, the cricket on the hearth chirps; it is silent when there is sorrow. Tackleton, a jealous old man, poisons John's mind about Dot, but the cricket through its supernatural powers restores John's confidence and all ends happily. The Battle of Life In this tale, the main characters live in a rural English village that was the site of an historic battle. The battle comes to symbolize the struggles these characters face in their daily lives. The Haunted Man Is a novella by Charles Dickens first published in 1848. It is the fifth and last of Dickens' Christmas novellas. The story is more about the spirit of the holidays than about the holidays themselves, harking back to the first of the series, A Christmas Carol. The tale centers around a Professor Redlaw and those close to him. Charles John Huffam Dickens (7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's most memorable fictional characters and is generally regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian period. During his life, his works enjoyed unprecedented fame, and by the twentieth century his literary genius was broadly acknowledged by critics and scholars. His novels and short stories continue to be widely popular.

The third in the Modern Library's series of original compilations, The Raven and the Monkey's Paw is a collection of classic tales and poems to engage our fear-seeking senses. The beauty of these stories and poems lies in their readability: ideal for sharing aloud around the campfire or for a quick, thrilling dip . . . under the covers with a flashlight. The writing itself sends as many awe-inspired shivers down the spine as do the ghosts and goblins on these pages.

Edgar Allan Poe, the master of the horror story and the chiming lyric poem, opens the volume with his best-loved stories: "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," "The Black Cat," "The Fall of the House of Usher," "The Pit and the Pendulum," "The Premature Burial," "The Tell-Tale Heart," "Berenice," and "Ligeia." Every bit as chilling now as on the day they were written, these tales retain their power to stir the reader again and again. Poe, who was as well known for his poems as for his stories, is also represented by such verse standards as "The Raven," "Lenore," "To Helen," "Ulalume," and "Annabel Lee," among others.

Numerous other practitioners of the supernatural story are included: Edith Wharton, with her gripping "Afterward"; Charles Dickens and his famed ghost story "The Signalman"; W. W. Jacobs, with this compilation's inspiration, "The Monkey's Paw." Also here are Saki's engrossing "Sredni Vashtar"; O. Henry's story of love lost and hopes dashed, "The Furnished Room"; Wilkie Collins's lively "A Terribly Strange Bed"; and "The Boarded Window," Ambrose Bierce's tale of the bizarre.

A year-round collection for reading aloud—and frightening your friends—The Raven and the Monkey's Paw will gratify all manner of thrill-seekers.

David Copperfield, is the eighth novel by Charles Dickens. It was first published as a serial in 1849–50, and as a book in 1850. Many elements of the novel follow events in Dickens' own life, and it is probably the most autobiographical of his novels. In the preface to the 1867 edition, Dickens wrote, "like many fond parents, I have in my heart of hearts a favourite child. And his name is David Copperfield."The story follows the life of David Copperfield from childhood to maturity. David was born in Blunderstone, Suffolk, near Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, England, in 1820, six months after the death of his father. David spends his early years in relative happiness with his loving but frail mother and their kindly housekeeper, Peggotty. When he is seven years old his mother marries Edward Murdstone. During the marriage, partly to get him out of the way and partly because he strongly objects to the whole proceeding, David is sent to lodge with Pegotty’s family, in Yarmouth. Her brother, the fisherman Pegotty, lives in a houseboat with his adopted relatives Em’ly and Ham, and an elderly widow, Mrs Gummidge. Little Em’ly is somewhat spoilt by her fond foster father, and David is in love with her. On his return, David is given good reason to dislike his stepfather and has similar feelings for Murdstone's sister Jane, who moves into the house soon afterwards. Between them they tyrannise over his poor mother, making her and David’s’ lives miserable, and when in consequence David falls behind in his studies, Murdstone attempts to thrash him – partly to further pain his mother. David bites him and soon afterwards is sent away to a boarding school, Salem House, under a ruthless headmaster, Mr. Creakle. There he befriends an older boy, James Steerforth, and Tommy Traddles. He develops an impassioned admiration for Steerforth, perceiving him as something noble, who could do great things if he would.

David goes home for the holidays only to learn that his mother has given birth to a baby boy. Shortly after David returns to Salem House, his mother and her baby die, and David returns home immediately. Peggotty marries the local carrier, Mr Barkis. Murdstone sends David to work for a wine merchant in London – a business of which Murdstone is a joint owner. Copperfield's tragicomic landlord, Wilkins Micawber, is arrested for debt and sent to the King's Bench Prison, where he remains for several months, before being released and moving to Plymouth. No one remains to care for David in London, so he decides to run away.He walks from London to Dover, where he finds his only relative, his unmarried, eccentric great-aunt Betsey Trotwood. She had come to Blunderstone at his birth, only to depart in ire upon learning that he was not a girl. However, she takes pity on him and agrees to raise him, on condition that he always tries to ‘be as like his sister, Betsy Trotwood” as he can be, meaning that he is to endeavour to emulate the prospective namesake she was disappointed of, despite Murdstone's attempt to regain custody of David. David's great-aunt renames him "Trotwood Copperfield" and addresses him as "Trot", and it becomes one of several names which David is called by in the course of the novel.

David is sent to another school by his aunt, as he calls his great-aunt. This is a far better school than the last he attended, and is run by Dr Strong, whose methods inculcate honour and self-reliance in his pupils. During term, David lodges with the lawyer Mr Wickfield, and his daughter Agnes, who becomes David’s confidante. Wickfield has a secretory, the 15 year-old Uriah Heep.

By devious means Uriah Heep gradually gains a complete ascendancy over the aging Wickfield, to Agnes’ great sorrow. Heep hopes, and maliciously confides to David, that he aspires to Agnes’ hand. Ultimately with the aid of Micawber, who has been employed by Heep as a secretary, his fraudulent behaviour is revealed, and Wickfield vindicated; he had been apparently instrumental in the loss of David’s Aunt Trotwood’s fortune, which Heep had in fact stolen. At the end of the book, David meets him in a prison, for attempting to defraud the Bank of England.

David's romantic but self-serving school friend, Steerforth, seduces and dishonours Emily, offering to marry her off to one of his servants before finally deserting her. Her uncle Peggotty manages to find her with the help of London prostitute Martha, who had grown up in their county. Ham, who had been engaged to marry her before the tragedy, died in a storm off the coast in attempting to succour a ship; Steerforth was aboard the same and also died. Peggotty takes Emily to a new life in Australia, accompanied by the widowed Mrs. Gummidge and the Micawbers, where all eventually find security and happiness.

David marries the beautiful but naïve Dora Spenlow, who dies after failing to recover from a miscarriage early in their marriage. David then searches his soul and weds the sensible Agnes, who had always loved him and with whom he finds true happiness. David and Agnes then have at least four children, including a daughter named after his great-aunt, Betsey Trotwood.

Everyone is familiar with this classic Christmas story. Ebenezer Scrooge is a miserly, unpleasant man who despises Christmas and overworks his clerk Bob Cratchit. As he prepares for another Christmas Eve without celebration, Scrooge is greeted by his dead business partner, Jacob Marley who warns him that his greed will not go unpunished. At first, Scrooge doesn't heed Marley's warning, but soon he is visited by the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Christmas Yet to Come. He is made to face his cruel nature, and to consider whether he should change his ways.

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"Of all my books," says Charles Dickens in his preface to this immortal novel, "I like this the best. . . . Like many fond parents, I have in my heart of hearts a favorite child. And his name is David Copperfield." When "David Copperfield' appeared in 1850, after "Dombey and Son" and before "Bleak House," it became so popular that its only rival was "Pickwick." Beneath the fiction lies much of the author's personal life, yet it is not an autobiography. The story treats of David's sad experiences as a child, his youth at school, and his struggles for a livelihood, and leaves him in early manhood, prosperous and happily married. Pathos, humor, and skill in delineation, give vitality to this remarkable work; and nowhere has Dickens filled his canvas with more vivid and diversified characters. Forster says that the author's favorites were the Peggotty family, composed of David's nurse Peggotty, who was married to Barkis, the carrier; Daniel Peggotty, her brother, a Yarmouth fisherman; Ham Peggotty, his nephew; the doleful Mrs. Gummidge; and Little Emily, ruined by David's schoolmate, Steerforth. "It has been their fate," says Forster, "as with all the leading figures of his invention, to pass their names into the language and become types; and he has nowhere given happier embodiment to that purity of homely goodness, which, by the kindly and all-reconciling influences of humor, may exalt into comeliness and even grandeur the clumsiest forms of humanity." ...

This Ladybird Classic ebook is an abridged retelling of the classic story of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, making it perfect for introducing the story to younger children, or for newly confident readers to tackle alone.

This carefully crafted ebook: “The best of Charles Dickens” contains 8 books in one volume and is formatted for your eReader with a functional and detailed table of contents.

Table of contents : The Pickwick Papers Oliver Twist A Christmas Carol David Copperfield Bleak House Hard Times A Tale of Two Cities Great Expectations

Charles John Huffam Dickens ( 1812 – 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's most memorable fictional characters and is generally regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian period. During his life, his works enjoyed unprecedented fame, and by the twentieth century his literary genius was broadly acknowledged by critics and scholars. His novels and short stories continue to be widely popular.

'A Christmas Carol' is a novel by English author Charles Dickens. The story tells of sour and stingy Ebenezer Scrooge's ideological, ethical and emotional transformation after the supernatural visits of Jacob Marley and the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come. This novel met with instant success and critical acclaim after its publication during that period. The original flavour of this classic has been carefully retained in this abridged version.

One theme of this story is the monstrous injustice and even ruin that could be wrought by the delays in the old Court of Chancery, which defeated all the purposes of a court of justice; but the romance proper is unconnected with this. The scene is laid in England about the middle of this century. Lady Dedlock, a beautiful society woman, successfully hides a disgraceful secret. She has been engaged to a Captain Hawdon; but through circumstances beyond their control, they were unable to marry, and her infant she believes to have died at birth. Her sister, however, has brought up the child under the name of Esther Summerson. Esther becomes the ward of Mr. Jarndyce, of the famous chancery law case of Jarndyce vs. Jarndyce, and lives with him at Bleak House. Her unknown father, the Captain, dies poor and neglected in London. A veiled lady visits his grave at night; and this confirms a suspicion of Mr. Tulkinghorn, Sir Leicester Dedlock's lawyer, already roused by an act of Lady Dedlock. With the aid of a French maid he succeeds in unraveling the mystery, and determines to inform his friend and client Sir Leicester of his wife's youthful misconduct . On the night before this revelation is to be made, Mr. Tulkinghorn is murdered. Lady Dedlock is suspected of the crime, disappears, and after long search is found by Esther and a detective, lying dead at the gates of the grave-yard where her lover is buried. The story is told partly in the third person, and partly as autobiography by Esther.

Dickens's tenth novel, was published in 1861, nine years before his death. As in "David Copperfield," the hero tells his own story from boyhood. Yet in several essential points "Great Expectations" is markedly different from "David Copperfield," and from Dickens's other novels. Owing to the simplicity of the plot, and to the small number of characters, it possesses greater unity of design. These characters, each drawn with marvelous distinctness of outline, are subordinated throughout to the central personage "Pip," whose great expectations form the pivot of the narrative. But the element that most clearly distinguishes this novel from the others is the subtle study of the development of character through the influence of environment and circumstance. In the career of Pip, a more careful and natural presentation of personality is made than is usual with Dickens. He is a village boy who longs to be a "gentleman." His dreams of wealth and opportunity suddenly come true. He is supplied with money, and sent to London to be educated and to prepare for his new station in life. Later he discovers that his unknown benefactor is a convict to whom he had once rendered a service. The convict, returning against the law to England, is recaptured and dies in prison, his fortune being forfeited to the Crown. Pip's great expectations vanish into thin air. "Great Expectations" is a delightful novel, rich in humor and free from false pathos. The character of Joe Gargery, simple, tender, quaintly humorous, would alone give imperishable value to the book.

All Coterie Classics have been formatted for ereaders and devices and include a bonus link to the free audio book.

“My heart is set, as firmly as ever heart of man was set on woman. I have no thought, no view, no hope, in life beyond her; and if you oppose me in this great stake, you take my peace and happiness in your hands, and cast them to the wind.” ― Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist Oliver Twist is the story of a young orphan who runs away from a workhouse to join a gang of thieves and is Charles Dickens’ scathing critique on the underbelly of London.

A level 5 Oxford Bookworms Library graded reader. This version includes an audio book: listen to the story as you read. Retold for Learners of English by Clare West. In a gloomy, neglected house Miss Havisham sits, as she has sat year after year, in a wedding dress and veil that were once white, and are now faded and yellow with age. Her face is like a death’s head; her dark eyes burn with bitterness and hate. By her side sits a proud and beautiful girl, and in front of her, trembling with fear in his thick country boots, stands young Pip. Miss Havisham stares at Pip coldly, and murmurs to the girl at her side: ‘Break his heart, Estella. Break his heart!’

"In these times of ours," are the opening words of this book, which was published in England in 1864-65. The scene is laid in London and its immediate neighborhood. All the elaborate machinery dear to Dickens's heart is here introduced. There is the central story of Our Mutual Friend, himself the young heir to the vast Harmon estate, who buries his identity and assumes the name of John Rokesmith, that he may form his own judgment of the young woman whom he must marry in order to claim his fortune; there is the other story of the poor bargeman's daughter, and her love for reckless Eugene Wrayburn, the idol of society; and uniting these two threads is the history of Mr. and Mrs. Boffin, the ignorant, kindhearted couple, whose innocent ambitions, and benevolent use of the money intrusted to their care, afford the author opportunity for the humor and pathos of which he was a master. Among the characters which this story has made famous are Miss Jenny Wren, the doll's dressmaker, a little, crippled creature whose love for Lizzie Hexam transforms her miserable life; Bradley Headstone, the schoolmaster, suffering torments because of his jealousy of Eugene Wrayburn, and helpless under the careless contempt of that trained adversary— dying at last in an agony of defeat at his failure to kill Eugene; and the triumph of Lizzie's love over the social difference between her and her lover; Bella Wilfer, "the boofer lady," cured of her longing for riches and made John Harmon's happy wife by the plots and plans of the Golden Dustman ...